


Venus

by racountuer



Series: Our Solar System [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Enemies to Lovers, Love/Hate, M/M, Pining, but because of the sheer emotion, i got angry halfway through writing this, kind of, not because i hated it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-05
Updated: 2016-08-05
Packaged: 2018-07-29 12:51:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7685350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/racountuer/pseuds/racountuer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Fucking Keith,” Lance murmurs.</p><p>“What was that, Lance?” Pidge asks innocently, “You wanna fuck Keith?”</p><p>“Shut up,” Lance hisses. “God, no. That’s the last thing I want. Not even if we were the last people on Earth, or if fucking him gave me some awesome superpowers or if it saved my life.”</p><p>“Keep telling yourself that,” Pidge smirks.</p><p>Or, where Lance's rivalry is as strong and as obsessive as love. </p><p>For #klanceweek16</p>
            </blockquote>





	Venus

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the second day of Klance Week! These stories are written daily (because I, like an idiot, procrastinated making a decision on doing klance week or not), so any errors will be fixed by the end of the week. I promise. 
> 
>  
> 
> P.S: Pidge has he/him pronouns because Lance is oblivious and doesn’t believe that Pidge could be a girl, not during their Garrison days.

Lance is in his first year of being a cargo pilot when he meets Keith Kogane, a boy more serious than half of their teachers and more quiet than he has any right to be. It feels like Lance has finally met his equal, with Keith being top in the pilot class and Lance being top of the cargo class. 

Lance has always been near large groups of people, and if not, he’s had two or three people near him that he could always talk to. He has never been poor in love or in company, and so finding confidence to talk to Keith (however fake) is as easy as riding a wave. 

It happens in the cafeteria because Lance has seen Mean Girls, so he knows friendships get made and broken there.

“Hey, Keith Kogane, right?” Lance asks, sliding into a seat across from Keith. They’re the only ones sitting on their corner of the long table. 

Keith glances up for a second before resuming to eat. 

Lance clears his throat, “I hear you’re top of your piloting class, and I’m top of mine. Lance Mcclain, cargo pilot, by the way. I thought we could maybe meet after classes so we could teach each other some things…”

Keith sighs, pushing his tray away. “Listen, I’m in here for my own benefit, not yours. I don’t want to be rude, but I need to focus on myself and not some boy from a cargo class.” 

Lance blinks. Then blinks again. He registers the tone when Keith says  _ cargo class  _ and momentarily wants to punch his teeth out. Lance wants to punch himself for being this stupid. Why couldn’t he have just stuck to his own friends? Everyone knew Keith was a silent jerk whose only talents were piloting and alienating himself. 

Lance promptly rises from the table and leaves. He doesn’t look back as he walks over to his own seat, especially when Hunk leans over to whisper, “Was it that bad?” 

“Keith Kogane is a self-centered ass-wipe, Hunk. Don’t go near him.” 

Hunk nods, and turns back to his conversation with one of his fellow engineers. Lance remains in a sullen mood for the rest of the night. 

…

The morning after what Lance has now deemed The Incident, he’s sitting outside the cafeteria while eating his breakfast. Tall, ceiling-to-floor windows cover the curving hallways that are alight with the soft sunlight of the early morning the students are woken at. Lance still feels the stinging humiliation the cafeteria covers him in every time a group of people walk through it. 

Lance knows he shouldn’t be so sour over something as trivial as getting shut out. It’s not like it’s never happened before. This time, though, this time it feels different. Keith deliberately used his cargo pilot status to diminish him to something less than Keith. Something that isn’t worth even five minutes of conversation. 

Keith single-handedly ruined Lance’s week. Now he’s going to be thinking about their exchange all hours of the day. Damn Keith Kogane. 

Lance is ripping into his bread, imagining the face of whom he now deems his rival-for-life when said rival walks past him and into the cafeteria. Before he goes in, Keith makes eye-contact with Lance. His eyebrows furrow, but Lance meets the stare unflinchingly and with the best poker face that he can muster. 

Keith shakes his head, almost like he needs the added incentive to actually clear his thoughts and put one foot in front of the other, bringing him inside the cafeteria. The door snaps shut behind him, and Lance turns back to his food with a roll of his eyes. Damn Keith Kogane, indeed. 

…

Lance is drifting off in class when their teacher announces that a class of fighter pilots will be joining them today to listen to the lecture the Cargoes are getting from a famous ex-pilot from the Vietnamese War. He springs awake in an instant. 

_ Don’t let it be Keith. Not him. Not his class. Please? _

Lance spends the thirty minutes it takes for the Fighters to enter their classroom praying to his god and all other gods and goddesses and deities and spirits and ancestors that Keith Ko-fucking-gane does not come in through this very door. 

Keith fucking Kogane walks through the door. The fighter pilots all trail in after him, as if their top student is also their leader. It’s common knowledge that Keith barely talks and prefers working by himself than in groups, and so leadership is as far away from his level of expertise as having friendly conversations are. 

Lance sinks low on his chair in the lecture room, rubbing his temple as he rolls his eyes as dramatically as possible. Pidge snorts from behind him, reaching down to flick his head. Lance sticks out his tongue at him. Hunk grabs Pidge’s hand and tucks it back on his desk, forcing Lance to look back out to the front of the room where Keith has sat with the rest of his fighter pilots.

“Fucking Keith,” Lance murmurs. 

“What was that, Lance?” Pidge asks innocently, “You wanna fuck Keith?” 

“Shut up,” Lance hisses. “God, no. That’s the last thing I want. Not even if we were the last people on Earth, or if fucking him gave me some awesome superpowers or if it saved my life.” 

“Keep telling yourself that,” Pidge smirks. 

Lance, for a brief moment, wonders if he is telling himself something. If he’s covering up some truth that he doesn’t want to face. He can be honest with himself when the time comes, and if he’s being truthful, an obsessive hate seems as unhealthy as an obsessive love. 

Lance shakes off the thought. 

He has enough to think about with Keith’s stupid mullet head in front of him, close enough for him to pull and tug at like the true three-year-old he is. Hunk tries to keep him distracted for the rest of the lecture, and in the night, Lance takes a ride on the simulator by himself to let out pent-up anger. 

…

For every winter and summer break, the students in the Galaxy Garrison are allowed to go back to their own families. Hunk is always more affectionate with everyone during these times of year, for it means weeks and months of not seeing his friends. Lance has been on the receiving end of so many hugs for the two weeks prior winter break that he still feels a phantom imprint of Hunk’s arms around him. 

As soon as the plane touches down on Cuba, Lance takes a deep breath and shakes off the remnants of sleep from the ride home. He collects his bags and is back with his family, mother and father hugging him as tight as Hunk, sisters and brothers ruffling his hair then tugging him to their arms. 

Lance sighs in contentment. 

They all drive to the house, where a big dinner is prepared by his mother, aunt, and older brother. Most of his family is there already, except for a few aunts and uncles that are bound to come later in the week. For now, it’s only the close extended family that’s in Lance’s home. 

Lance helps around the house with small tasks, mainly trailing after his mother with cutlery and napkins as she directs him to where everyone would sit. When they’re all finally done, there’s empanadas, platano frito, chicken, and heaps of rice on the table. 

Sometimes Lance wonders where his mom gets all this food. 

They all sit down on the thirteen chairs smashed together around the table, everyone scrambling to get first servings. Lance dives straight for the fried plantains, all business and no play when it comes to his food, already too used to having to compete with five-hundred other students for the best food in the cafeteria. 

“So, Lance, how’s piloting school?” Aunt Miranda asks. 

“It’s pretty good,” Lance mumbles around food in his mouth. He smiles sheepishly against his mother’s disapproving stare. “I’m still top of my class, so I must be doing something right.” 

That gains chuckles around the table. 

“Hunk and I actually got to do a simulation together with a technician, Pidge, he’s cool. It went pretty bad, but it’s always so great to go on the simulator-” And then Lance is on a rant. 

Everyone listens to him talk about school, and then it’s only four people in the table listening to him as the rest of the family breaks off into two more conversations across the table. Only his mother, father, and two older sisters are listening to Lance when he finally says, “There’s a guy, though…”

“Oh?” Lance’s father raises an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” Lance grumbles. “His name is Keith Kogane, fighter pilot, and he’s probably the biggest jerk I’ve ever met.” 

“If he’s giving you trouble in school, we can rough him up a little,” Vanessa, his sister, smirks. 

Lance snorts, “I’d like that, but he wouldn’t even give you a second of his reaction before he’d leave all poker-faced. Like, I tried talking to him once, and I was even friendly! No innuendos, no jokes, just friendly conversation. Then he looks up at me and goes all ‘I’m sorry, but I’m better than you seeing as I’m a Fighter and you're a Cargo, so screw off or I’ll chop your balls off,’ like, who does that?” 

“Lance,” His mother frowns, “First of all, don’t be that crass on the table.” 

“Sorry, mami.” 

“Also, are you sure you’re not overdramatising this?” 

His younger brother, Mateo, snorts as he begins to listen in beside Lance. 

“I’m sure I’m not being melodramatic. I’m serious! He’s the biggest jerkwad the Garrison’s ever had. And worst, he’s top of his class so everyone looks up at him like some god.” 

“Lance, you sure sound jealous of this Keith,” Vanessa says. “Sure you don’t wanna become him?” 

“Ha ha, I’m sure.” 

“How many conversations have you had with this guy?” Lance’s eldest brother, Frederick, asks from across the table. 

“Like, one.” 

His family stares at him, everyone finally having caught on to Lance’s rant after Frederick shouted from his seat at the head of the table. 

Lance narrows his eyes, “What?” 

“Mijo, it seems like a lot of hate for a guy you’ve only had one conversation with,” His mother says, eyebrows furrowed in concern. 

“Yeah, Lance,” His youngest sister, at the ripe age of thirteen, grins and says, “You sure you’re not obsessed with him because you want to kiss him?” 

The whole table bursts in raucous laughter, his brothers and sisters making kissing noises at Lance for the rest of the night. Lance gets tasked with dish duty after dinner, so he’s stuck hearing his siblings come into the room for water via kissing noises at his back. 

Lance is brooding all the way up to the bathroom, where he startles every time someone knocks and shouts, “I bet Keith would want to kiss your skinny ass, too!” 

It’s only when his mother knocks the door and nimbly enters into Lance’s bedroom that he can relax against his bed. She sits on the edge of the bed, smiling down gently at him, arms crossed in something that Lance can only guess is smugness. 

“Mami, if you are going to tease me about Keith, could you please do so tomorrow?” 

“Oh, mijo,” His mom laughs. “You’ve always been so childish in love, you know that?” 

Lance blinks. “What?” 

His mom runs a hand through his hair before elaborating, “You’ve always been the type to pull a girl’s hair instead of telling her how you truly feel. And we both know you also like boys, Lance. The rest of the family may not have noticed how flustered you got after we talked about Keith, but I did.” 

Lance feels a momentary second of betrayal from having been so brutally exposed by his own mother, but he just sighs and whispers, “I don’t know. I’ve barely had one conversation with the guy, and I came out of it wanting to punch his teeth out” 

“Then you should find another person to like.” 

Lance nods, his mom leans down to kiss his cheek and he kisses hers in return before turning off his nightstand light and watching as the door closes shut. 

He breathes deeply, " Childish in love, huh?"

…

Lance is running laps around the gym in the Garrison when he spots Keith. It’s only a week after winter break, but the weather there and in Cuba are so hot that he feels more like he went for summer break. Or a tropical holiday, which, if he looks at it objectively, is true. 

Keith begins running as well, not looking toward Lance, almost in a trance. Lance scoffs lightly to himself, of course Keith didn’t notice him. He doesn’t notice anyone but himself. 

It goes on like this for a few weeks, Lance would be doing something and he’d find Keith. But Keith was never paying attention to him, barely even to his surroundings. The only reason why Keith seemed to know where he was standing was because of sheer muscle memory, of Keith having gone there enough times to know where the location was. 

When Lance is talking with the engineers in the garage, where some of them are fixing up a red hover plane, Keith walks in and takes one look at the hover plane, a pensive expression in place. He shakes it off before taking a few wrenches and walking out. 

When Lance is in the kitchens late at night, he hears the doors opening. He hides behind five large bags of flour, and peeks out when he hears nimble steps instead of the heavy, confident ones of the adults. Anyone walking that softly must be sneaking around. Lance sees Keith, in civilian clothing and not pyjamas, shoving any food and pan he can fit in his bag. 

Lance doesn’t know why he doesn’t stop him, why he just lets Keith walk out of the kitchen and away from him without making a sound. Except he does know. And Lance hates himself for it, especially when he finds out in the morning that Keith is gone. 

…

Lance is on the mountainside with Hunk and Pidge when he sees Keith through the binoculars, and when he says, “I’d recognise that mullet anywhere,” he feels scraped raw and unearthed. He feels like he was waiting for this moment to come, and now that it had, adrenaline pumped in time with his heart.

…

Keith barely recognises Lance, but Lance recognises him, and when he says that they were rivals, he thinks back to all those late nights running together but without each other’s company. He thinks of every time the professors would talk about the best cargo pilot and the best fighter pilot like maybe, _maybe_ , they could be equals. Lance thinks of every single time he felt hate for Keith because without him, he wouldn’t have been a fighter pilot. Without him, Lance still would be stuck in cargo. 

Lance musters up all those sleepless nights thinking about his mother saying to him ‘you've always been childish in love’, and says they’re rivals. 

When Keith recognises him, Lance feels a skip in his chest. When Keith decides to let their rivalry go on, it feels like a win for him, because otherwise Lance doubts Keith would have given him the time of day. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for reading! Tomorrow's a new day with new fic, so stay tuned. 
> 
> Also: 
> 
> You may have noticed that Lance calls his mom 'mami', which is Spanish for mommy. But you'd be surprised how many people do it. My own dad called his mom 'mami' until the day she died, so, I kept with it. 
> 
> And! I chose to title this Venus for two reasons, 1) the goddess of love, Aphrodite, is called Venus in Roman mythology. 2) Venus is one of the most temperamental planets in our solar system. It's surface is impossible to live on, due to heat and fire and general mayhem, but right above the clouds it is said that it could be liveable. Like Lance in the story, Venus is volatile and temeramental. And probably hella impulsive.


End file.
